Designer Crochet Project: Elsa Schiaparelli

Elsa Schiaparelli is the next designer up on the list in the Designer Crochet Project series. Let’s see what she’s got in store for us. 50 Fashion Designers You Should Know succinctly describes this designer by saying, “The creations of this Italian designer were Surrealism transformed into fabric, blurring the border between art and fashion.” Sounds wonderful!! Let’s take a closer look.

About Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelli

Elsa Schiaparelli didn’t set out to be a fashion design star. She was an artist who created her own clothing because it was what she wanted to wear. She did try to start a small business but it flopped. However, when she was thirty years old, an American buyer noticed her cute knitted sweaters and promptly ordered three or four dozen and a fashion career was born. According to Wikipedia, the knitwear she made at this time (circa 1927) was created “using a special double layered stitch created by Armenian refugees and featuring sweaters with surrealist trompe l’oeil images”. By the age of 32 she had eight studios and 400 staff members working for her to create art-driven fashions. She worked in collaboration with Cocteau and Dali, was inspired by Picasso and always strived to stretch the edges of fashion design with new materials as well as new designs. After a couple of decades of great designs, she retired from the fashion business in 1954, leaving behind no design house but a great record of creative work.

Elsa Schiaparelli Crochet

1936 Elsa Schiaparelli Dress

Schiaparelli wearing a crochet collar

Wearing Elsa Schiaparelli with Crochet

Elsa Schiaparelli had very bold designs so if you were going to add crochet to her pieces then you’d probably want to use subtle crochet accessories to do it.

I would love to take this Schiaparelli dress, cut it to make it a jacket and then layer a great modern crochet tank under it.

This Schiaparelli dress could work with either a great pair of crochet shoes or a terrific black crochet shawl. What do you think?